Systems for digital printing include a variety of marking technologies, such as Electrophotographic, Liquid Ink Jet, Solid Ink Jet, which are well-known and commonly used for copying or printing documents. Many of these marking technologies provide user interfaces that allow for the selection of output options, such as finishing options, image modification, watermarks, edge erase, and image shift. When output options are selected with current user interfaces, it may be difficult to predict the output, resulting in multiple trials and errors before users achieve a desired output.
When the printing includes placing multiple output images on one sheet, such as on multiple-up and image repeat copy jobs, it may become difficult to predict the output because the original orientation of the individual images may be different than the output orientation of the aggregate output image. Previous user interfaces have been unable to predict, for example, the finishing location of staples to accommodate the intricacies of printing jobs with multiple-up and repeating images. One reason for the unpredictability of the output is that a user must choose both the page orientation and the number of staples using the user interface. Then, based on the information about page orientation, the number of staples, and the selection of short edge feed (SEF) or long edge feed (LEF), the paper output orientation is determined. If the wrong selection is made for any of the above the staple finishing option may be placed in the wrong location, for example, the staple would be placed on the upper-right corner instead of the upper-left corner.
While prior user interface systems have been successful in allowing the selection of various finishing options, there exists a need for an improved user interface system that provides user interface mimics to assist in predicting the output prior to actually printing on the digital printing device.